


Rain.

by FeliciaAmelloides



Series: A Oneshot a Day... [224]
Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Light Angst, M/M, Set During and After ‘A View to a Death’, Simon Doesn’t Die, The Beast Isn’t Real, injuries, questionable fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-25 14:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15642942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaAmelloides/pseuds/FeliciaAmelloides
Summary: In some strange alternate universe, Ralph doesn’t attend Jack’s feast in favour of searching for the supposedly batty Simon. He finds him in the midst of a violent thunderstorm- battered, bruised, and desperate to tell everyone something really important.





	Rain.

**Author's Note:**

> I love AUs where Simon’s alive. I’m procrastinating from writing my novel right now by coding a ridiculously long Lord of the Flies game which has made me think a lot about how someone could save Simon from his death. I just replaced the player character with Ralph and turned it into some Ralmon fluff (?).
> 
> Also, I actually proofread this! Admittedly, it was only because I thought it really sucked when I finished writing it and I wanted to change some parts, but still. That’s better than most of my typo-filled oneshots.
> 
> ((apologies in advance for the mess which is the end notes- I really need to stop using them as a diary))

When the heavens opened to take back one of their own, almost all sanity was gone from the island. Boys were screaming and dancing in a circle, united in their terror of the unseen Beast. They were a single unity under the chaotic sky, calling out against the wind and hunting an invisible force. Aggressive, terrified, engulfed by emotion, they surged round and round in an endless loop of savagery.

Meanwhile, a certain blond boy was blundering through the creepers in a fruitless search for a boy who had left to climb the mountain several hours earlier. Ralph had been going to attend Jack’s party like the others, but the thought of Simon facing the Beast alone sent a strange feeling through him which he couldn’t quite shake away. Now that most of his tribe had deserted him, he felt he couldn’t lose Simon as well- regardless of how batty he was.

With that in mind, Ralph had set off in the direction of the mountain while his remaining allies headed to the feast. Piggy promised to bring him back some food if he could get any, so at the very least he’d get some meat out of it.

When he reached the mountain, however, Simon wasn’t there. Ralph looked at the rocky ground at its base and noticed a few splatters of blood etched into the pink rock. Immediately a few warning bells went off in his mind. He set aside his disgust (and, although he’d never admit it, morbid excitement) at the sight and let his gaze follow the blood splatters into the forest. From there, the trail was clear. An obviously manmade path had been carved straight through the jungle, with creepers and bushes shoved aside to allow someone through. Ralph decided this new path was his best chance if he wanted to find Simon.

The rain started about twenty minutes into his walk down the path. It made the trip through the wily foliage even more uncomfortable than it was already, and Ralph grimaced as he wished he’d attended the feast instead. He could faintly hear shouting in the distance through the roar of thunder, and wondered what sort of fun the others were having.

Then, finally, he found the person he’d been looking for.

Simon was sprawled out on the ground a few paces away from him, dragging himself through the creepers and brush towards the clearing where Ralph could faintly see signs of movement. The blond could already tell Simon was injured from where he was standing, taking note of the cuts and scrapes all over his body. He hurried towards his sort-of-friend with a rare feeling of concern.

“R-Ralph?” Simon choked out, barely audible over the rain. Ralph nodded and reached out to take his hand. The dark-haired boy weakly staggered to his feet, leaning on Ralph with his whole weight in order to stay standing. He wobbled, and the blond used his other hand to hold him up.

“Can you walk?” He asked loudly enough to be heard over the weather. Simon nodded abruptly, then began to speak frantically. Ralph couldn’t hear much of what he was saying, but strained to listen. The urgency in Simon’s voice had caught his attention.

“Ralph! The B-Beast- tell you- it’s not- body on a hill! We need to- others-“ The smaller boy suddenly gasped and collapsed into Ralph’s side. He carefully wrapped Simon’s arm around his shoulder and began to edge his way around the trees at the border to the clearing. He considered entering the clearing to ask someone for help, but there was something about the increasingly violent shouts of the boys within which stopped him. He didn’t want to know what they were doing in there. It sounded like some kind of murder ritual.

It took a long time for Ralph to help Simon down the rocks and onto the beach, where he could half-lead half-drag him towards the nearest shelter. The wind had picked up immensely with the arrival of the storm, and they could feel it more strongly on the fully exposed beach than in the jungle. Still, it was the fastest way to the shelters and would prevent any further plant-related injuries. Simon feebly protested and attempted to break away from Ralph throughout the entire walk, which certainly wasn’t helping things, but the blond adamantly refused to let go of him. 

When they finally reached the shelters, Simon crashed and fell towards the floor. Ralph hurried to catch him by the arm so he could lower him gently to the ground. He was becoming more and more worried about the boy’s frantic ramblings when he found him. What could possibly have been so important that Simon would go to such lengths to tell everyone about it? 

Oh well. There was no point in pondering it now. Ralph would have to wait until Simon woke up.

He sat under the shelter silently with Simon lying unconscious at his side, watching as the rain poured outside. 

*

“Ralph!” The blond awoke to Simon’s voice and someone shaking him. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and groggily sat up, wondering when he’d fallen asleep. He looked up at Simon’s anxious expression with indifference brought on from fatigue. 

“What is it?” He asked, voice thick with sleep. Simon paused for a moment, looking Ralph over. He then quietly said,

“The Beast isn’t real.” Ralph’s eyes widened. He suddenly felt more awake.

“What? How do you know?”

“It isn’t real. I climbed the mountain and saw for myself. It was just... a dead body. He had a parachute on. There was no Beast.” Simon sounded relatively calm, but there was a haunted look in his eyes which was unmistakeable to Ralph. That was the look of someone who had seen unspeakable things. He’d seen that look before, in the eyes of someone he barely remembered anymore.

“Are you sure about this?” Ralph didn’t entirely doubt Simon, but he wanted to make sure. The dark-haired boy nodded violently, and Ralph knew he was telling the truth. The state Simon had been in the previous night was a pretty clear indicator of that too. Speaking of the state he was in last night... “How are you feeling?” Ralph’s tone softened when he saw the injuries all over Simon’s body. 

“I’ve been better,” The dark-haired boy smiled weakly, “But I’ll be okay. I just... needed to tell everyone they’re all worked up over nothing.” Ralph nodded. He knew the feeling of trying to explain such things to the others.

“We’ll tell them together. I don’t know if they’ll listen to us or not though.” He frowned doubtfully at the thought of Jack Merridew believing a word he said. But maybe they could convince some of the other islanders... Then they wouldn’t be alone, at least. Simon suddenly flopped back onto the leaves which made up the floor of the shelter with a sigh.

“Thank you...” he mumbled after a moment, “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t found me.” Ralph was frozen into silence upon looking at him. Simon’s eyes glittered in the dim light coming in from the shelter’s doorway; his dark hair fanned out about his head. A faint smile touched his lips in a way Ralph hadn’t noticed before. Simon still seemed half-asleep, and Ralph wondered if he should encourage him to rest a little before returning to the others. It was then he realised it was still night, or possibly early in the morning. The rain had stopped outside, and he could see the stars shining far above them.

“You don’t have to thank me,” He replied slowly, flustered by the strange feelings he’d experienced during his previous pause, “I couldn’t have just left you like that.” Simon laughed softly, then broke down into a sudden coughing fit. He struggled to catch his breath, but fortunately managed to recover after a few moments. He took deep breaths and wiped at his eyes where they’d started to water while Ralph hovered anxiously over him.

“I’m okay.” Simon quickly reassured Ralph upon seeing the look on his face. The blond frowned at him.

“Maybe you should get some sleep.” He tried to sound off-handed, but a little concern broke through into his voice. Simon looked as if he was about to decline this, but then changed his mind and nodded instead.

“So should you. It’s been a long night.” Ralph couldn’t argue with that. He lay down next to Simon and watched as the younger boy stared up at the leafy ceiling above them. They were both still exhausted from the events of the previous night (or possibly that night- it was difficult to tell at this hour), and it didn’t take long for them to drift off to sleep. The night (or morning)’s revelations could wait until the sun shone in the sky again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be about panlie (Charlie/Panda from We Bare Bears), but I thought it was too similar to the episode ‘Hurricane Hal’ and I was thinking about LotF anyway so this happened. 
> 
> The game I mentioned in the start notes is a really trashy side project of mine which I wrote five lines of code for ages ago then abandoned. For some reason I woke up one day and thought ‘hey, I should finish that game!’.
> 
> It now has about 550 lines of code (there’s a lot of white space- blank lines so I can see the code better- which is why I don’t know the exact number) and it’s really awful. 
> 
> What’s it about, you’re probably not asking? Well, it’s a LotF simulator of sorts. You play as an 11-year-old boy who crash landed on the island with the others. It’s one of those choice-making visual novels, except it’s not a dating sim. You can play along with the story exactly as it is in the novel, or change it drastically depending on your choices. So far, I’ve only coded up to where they vote Ralph in as chief because the set up took way too long (and because I added a ridiculous amount of choices for absolutely no reason).
> 
> ...I really need to work on my novel. I’ve finally hit 16K, but I still feel like it’s going nowhere. Considering most really long, really good chapter fics on here are over 100K, my goal of 60K for the whole novel feels quite measly by comparison. Oh well;;;
> 
> Prompt- Hiding out from a thunderstorm.
> 
> Original Number- 232.


End file.
